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ScottyMacEsq, Lawyer

Category: Employment Law

Satisfied Customers: 15761

Experience: Licensed Texas General Practice Attorney

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I am a VP of Admissions (sales) education company based in

Customer Question

I am a VP of Admissions (sales) for a for profit education company based in West Orange NJ.....I live in Allentown PA. With the company for 23 years and started from the bottom. Been in this position since 2005 Upper management has recently changed...CEO wants to bring his own team in (understandably). Recently we have made some layoffs...and the people who reported to me were rifted (they took my tools/support away)...now they want me to step back into a school position and replace me with someone else in the company AND give that person some of the positions back that they took away from me. There has been no indication from any of my superiors that I was doing a bad job....no verbal warnings....Letter of concern or ESP (Employee success plan)...I need to find out what my rights are

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. The main thing that you need to know is that both New Jersey and Pennsylvania are "at will" employment states . At-will employment means that without a contract, you have no contractual or other right to employment with the company. The company is entitled to fire you for any reason: a good reason, a poor reason, or no reason at all--as long as the company does not fire you for an illegal reason (race, gender, age, religion, etc...). But it extends beyond firing, to hiring, promotions, demotions, wage cuts and raises, disciplinary actions, and even scheduling. Unless you can show that this was done in violation of a contract, union agreement, or a clear violation of an unambiguous and binding clause against the employer, or that it was done because of some minority status (age, race, gender, religion, disability) that you have, then they do have this discretion.

Furthermore, the law does not require employers to provide employees with severance pay. If an employer chooses to provide severance benefits, it must comply with the terms of its established policy or employment contract. Now it can establish a policy by "practice" rather than written policy, but to establish any sort of discrimination, you would need to show that one class of individuals was disproportionately benefits (for instance, only males got severance packages and females didn't) to have a claim of discrimination in that matter. As for the "leverage" to negotiate a severance package, it doesn't sound like you have much, if any. Again, both states are "at will" employment states and employers have discretion in this regard. Severance packages are generally offered in exchange for the signing of a waiver of any claims that you would have against the company, if any. If you had evidence that you were targeted for race, age, gender, religion, etc... then you could use that as leverage to get a bigger severance (because you could make a claim otherwise).

So in short, if the CEO is bringing in "his" people (and it's not clear that they're discriminating against you based on your race,a age, religion, gender, or disability, or that they're breaching a contract that they had with you, then they could do this. Your only real rights in this situation would be that if they were to do it, you could still get unemployment benefits.

I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but it is the law. I hope that clears things up anyway. If you have any other questions, please let me know. If not, and you have not yet, please rate my answer AND press the "submit" button, if applicable. Please note that I don't get any credit for the time and effort that I spent on this answer unless and until you rate it positively (good or better). Thank you, ***** ***** luck to you!

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I see that you still have not responded in some time. Please note that this question is still open until you rate it. I believe that I have answered your question, but if you have any other questions, please let me know.If not, and you have not yet, please rate my answer. Please note that I don't get any credit for my answer unless and until you rate it a 3, 4, 5 (good or better). Thank you, ***** ***** good luck to you!